Yesterday, June 20th, the White House Council on Women and Girls hosted a great event celebrating the 40th anniversary of Title IX with dozens of advocates and leaders who are continuing the fight for gender equity in our schools. We were also lucky to have some impressive young women from the Girl Scouts and Girls Inc. in audience, who also participated in mentoring sessions with some of the amazing women leaders in attendance after the formal program.
It was so much fun to spend the afternoon having a conversation about the many achievements that women and girls have made over the last forty years. We heard from Billie Jean King and others on the impact of Title IX in athletics. And Benita Fitzgerald-Mosley, an Olympic track and field gold medalist, engineer and current Chief of Sport Performance for USA Track and Field, led a panel about advancing our commitment to Title IX in education, which included astronaut Mae Jemison, among others. We were also honored to have Senator Birch Bayh, “The Father” of Title IX there with us to deliver remarks about the inception of this landmark legislation, as well as our Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan to talk about the administration’s commitment to strengthening and expanding the reach of Title IX.
